Gatineau: Five Sectors, Five Medians, and Why We Publish No Trend

3,008 real sales now sit in our base for Gatineau, over a window of nearly three years. They allow five sectors to be compared with one another, and they do not allow us to say which way prices are moving — this article covers both, and explains why the second point is a measured limit rather than cosmetic caution. For the general portrait, see our read of the Gatineau real estate market in 2026.

What the base holds, to the row

3,008 rows of closed sales, from 10 December 2023 to 8 September 2026, across five sectors: Gatineau 1,085, Aylmer 914, Hull 768, Buckingham 118, Masson-Angers 102.

After removing 21 rows identical on the four fields we read — type, price, date, sector — 2,987 distinct sales remain, and that is the set every median in this article is computed on. We give both numbers because the gap is real and entirely normal: two different sales can legitimately share those four values.

These are closed transactions, not listings or asking prices. The distinction matters: an asking price measures an intention, a sale price measures an agreement.

Gatineau is not one market, it is five

Single-family median, by sector, over the whole window:

Aylmer $699,900 on 471 sales · Gatineau $649,200 on 519 · Hull $640,000 on 202 · Masson-Angers $510,250 on 48 · Buckingham $416,250 on 50.

The gap between the most and least expensive sector reaches $283,650 at the median, a ratio of 1.68. It is the city's most striking fact and also its most actionable: a buyer extending their search from Aylmer to Buckingham does not change city, they change budget by nearly $300,000 on the same property type.

Note that the three highest-volume sectors — Gatineau, Aylmer, Hull — sit within a $60,000 band, while the two smallest drop away sharply. A single figure for the whole city would flatten that structure and represent none of the five sectors correctly.

The composition break, measured by two signatures

Here is the measurement that rules out a trend, and we give it rather than keep it quiet.

First signature, volume. Monthly single-family sales run 27 in January 2026, 43 in February, 43 in March, 66 in April, 21 in May, 27 in June — then 242 in July and 173 in August. A municipal market does not multiply its volume ninefold from one month to the next. What that jump measures is the arrival of a batch of data, not a surge in activity.

Second signature, the sector mix. Buckingham and Masson-Angers — the two lowest medians — total 11 single-family sales over the first six months of 2026, and 58 over July and August alone. The weight of the cheapest sectors in the sample therefore changes completely between the two periods.

And the consequence is arithmetic: the city's single-family median goes from $721,000 in January to $455,000 in August. A quick reading would see a price collapse. What it should see is a change of sample, because the drop coincides exactly, month for month, with the two signatures above.

So we publish no year-over-year change, no percentage rise or fall, no monthly trend for Gatineau. It would be an exact figure answering a badly posed question.

Why the sector medians hold anyway

The distinction is subtle and it decides what is publishable. A median is a rank statistic: it depends on the order of the values, not on how many there are.

When you compare two periods whose composition differs, the median moves for a reason unrelated to prices, and the comparison is lost. When you compute a median within one sector, over the whole window, you describe that sector's level, and that level is solid as soon as the sample is sufficient.

That is why this article publishes levels and not variations. The five sector medians read as "where this sector sits relative to the other four", never as "what a house sells for this month".

Medians by type, over the whole window

Single-family home $650,000 on 1,290 sales, middle half from $485,000 to $759,900. Condominium $319,000 on 884 sales, middle half from $290,000 to $360,000.

Duplex $530,000 on 375 sales. Triplex $765,000 on 279. Plex $875,005 on 123. These three categories are distinct and never added together: aggregating them would produce a fourth figure describing none of the three realities.

The condominium stands out for its concentration: its middle half spans only $70,000, against nearly $275,000 for the single-family home. A condo buyer in Gatineau therefore operates in a far more homogeneous market, where the median is a more useful reference point than it is for houses.

What to verify on your own file

First your sector, by name, not the city. It is the variable that moves your figure most, ahead of type, ahead of area, ahead of year.

Then your position inside the middle half for your type, rather than your distance from the median. A house at $760,000 in Aylmer is at the high end of normal; the same house in Buckingham would be beyond anything the sector has produced.

Finally, for a pricing decision, recent and genuinely similar comparables rather than a long-window median. That is exactly what the composition break makes necessary: when the time series is not readable, the individual comparable regains all of its importance.